With constant development of communications technologies, three traditional networks (a cable television network, a telecommunications network, and a computer network) gradually penetrate and integrate with each other. A hybrid fiber coaxial (HFC) emerges as the time requires. Constructing a broadband data platform on an HFC bidirectional network that has a frequency band of approximately 1 gigahertz (GHz) becomes an irresistible trend. A cable modem terminal system (CMTS) technology becomes a product of the trend.
Currently, a protocol standard to which the HFC makes a reference is the Data Over Cable Service Interface Specification (DOCSIS) and the C-DOCSIS standard. Network elements mainly included in the hybrid fiber coaxial HFC based on the DOCSIS standard are a server, for example, a Trivial File Transfer Protocol (TFTP) server or a Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) server; a CMTS; a cable modem (CM); and a terminal device connected to a CM device.
In the prior art, a process of acquiring a configuration file by a CM includes the CM sends a DHCP request message to a DHCP server, to request the DHCP server to allocate an IP address; a CMTS device acquires a DHCP response packet of the DHCP server, modifies an address of a TFTP server in the DHCP response packet into an address of the CMTS device, and sends the address of the CMTS device to the CM; the CM sends a request to the CMTS device to acquire a configuration file according to the address of the TFTP server in the DHCP response packet; and then the CMTS requests a configuration file of the CM from the TFTP server, and sends the configuration file acquired from the TFTP server to the CM. Because multiple CMs may be connected to a CMTS device, when each CM gets online, the CMTS device needs to start a TFTP client for the CM, to download a configuration file from a TFTP server. Starting the TFTP server to distribute a configuration file to the CM severely affects performance of the CMTS device, and further affects a service provisioning time of the CM.